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Leadia Soymilk Project

View the pictures beginning from below upwards. The pictures show the process it took us to make soy milk. The first picture here shows members pounding soy using motors and pestles, second- adding water, third- sieving, Fourth-boiling, fifth- members observing the process, sixth-tea being served.



The Leadia Soy milk Project

In Uganda, milk is synonymous to cows. When Leadia team learned about other sources of milk, we were reluctant to share it with the members of the fifty families that have just harvested soy.However, following our resolve for innovative change to boost people choices, we decided to introduce the soy milk project. Following our instinct that actions are better than words, we were convinced that a practical demonstration of how to make soy milk would do the magic. And that is what happened. By the end of the day, family representatives who turned up to participate in the demonstration of how to make soy milk were very impressed and kept on asking, how can 1.5 kilogram of soy produce enough milk to make tea for 59 people? One member summed up the experience, "a miracle unfolded before our very eyes, but why did it take us long to discover that soy is a source of milk? Other members could not hide their excitement and amazement: "soy milk is easier to access than buying a cow"; give me a break, you mean milk is hidden in soy; it is real milk, you missed it; soy is going to be part of my family forever".
Milestone: One of the goals of leadia is to stir up the ingenuity and creativity of our people to maximize their potential and multiple the values of their resources at hand. The soy project has opened the floodgates to this dream. Members have realized that they need to explore new possible uses of the resources they have and how to improve upon their values. So far, we have discovered that if we get a milk processor, we can maximize milk production to cater for the nutritional needs of children and the community at large.

The Impact: As a result, many more families have decided to plant soy to improve upon their potentials, health and savings. This is a boost to our dream.

Although there are many major giants on our way, we are confident that the ingenuity and creativity of our people that the soy milk miracle has unlocked to maximize their potential and multiple the values of their resources at hand will overcome them all. Please, pray for us and support us in whichever way you can whenever you are able. Share with us any idea/information you have about this project.

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Leadia Pushes on with Living Hope against HIV/AIDS Pandemic (December 09 Update)

Our vision to revive hope among people living with HIV/AIDS through empowerment towards holistic transformation is bearing fruits. The HIV/AIDS projects focuses on prevention, care and support, and channels of hope through empowerment as a crosscutting issue.
As UNDP puts it, HIV/AIDS is a multifaceted epidemic that calls for multifaceted and concerted approach arrest it. With poverty being its brooding ground, living hope still remains the only antidote available within the means of communities that are committed to responding to the epidemic which is comparable to the bubonic plague of 1340s. Our efforts have so far struck code with local communities and we now have every sign to believe that living hope is a formidable antidote to the pandemic.
Size of the Project: We target mainly children and youths aged between 5 and 24, people living with AIDS who need care and support, the rest of people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and families wallowing in poverty. We currently support 320 households. Each household has an average of five people. Overall, there are 1600 clients who attend our program.
Challenges we are responding to: So far, we have witnessed that disempowerment due to poverty is the leading challenge to the efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic and reduce its effects. This disempowerment takes the form of marred human identity and vocation, and unjust relationships. These obstacles have rendered the affected people poor, physically weak, isolated, vulnerable, powerless, disenfranchised from social, economic, political and state power, and entangled in the vicious cycle of absolute poverty of being. These challenges require structural and societal change as well as personal. We have a three-tier program to address these challenges: in tier one we focus on material necessities, tier two we focus on social, economic, political and state capital (vocation and just relationships), and tier three we address worldview, culture, marred identity, and principalities and powers (human identity).
Programs of Intervention
Vision Club: Sex has been a taboo in many of the local cultures and traditions. In this era of HIV/AIDS and information technology, we are breaking the silence and modeling community oriented information on HIV/AIDS, sex, life vision and skills among others to empower especially the youths with a basis for vibrant and resilient life. So far, we have mobilised 4 primary schools and hope to expand it to include secondary school students as well. Our target is to address cultural roots of abuses of sex by changing sex narratives. Besides training teachers, community leaders, parents and student leaders as the vanguards of this program, we have established social activities for the youths which include soccer, netball, drama, community services to redirect their energy to positive actions. (Picture of soccer club in a training session- Pic 1)
Food Security: In order to restore and maintain the health of people who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, we decided to launch organic farming beginning with soy project. We have so far bought two oxen and one ox plough to help people plough new fields for crops-(pic 6). We gave out five kilogram of soy seeds to a total of fifty households as a micro loan project. Upon harvest, they will give back five kilograms that we will give out to another set of fifty households. They will also sell a portion of the harvest to set up funds for micro loan scheme. (Picture of work in the soy garden- pic 5)
Piglet and goat project: We have given out piglets and goats to boost household capacity to engage in production for consumption and income. (Picture of piglet project- pic 4)
Community Based Initiative for Care and Support: With the resolve never to let people die alone and unattended to because of HIV/AIDS and poverty, we launched out a program to identify with them at the time of need by offering support and care. We have trained a total of 21 home caregivers who monitor households ensuring that their physical, social, spiritual, emotional and moral environment is conducive for their well being. We still need more home caregivers to cover 200 people who have AIDS. (Picture of home caregiver team- pic 3)
Child Sponsorship and Education: We have 60 orphans we support through school out of over 400 orphans we have identified. We support them with scholastic materials and school uniform. (Picture of children holding up the books they received-pic 2)
Areas of Expansion:
-Vegetable and fruit gardens in each household
-Cow/goat and Chicken projects
-Music lessons, soccer tournaments, and computer lessons
-Micro finance and community cooperative society
-Wellness center as the main referral for treatment and coordination.
Challenges: Despite the numerous successes we have registered, general and specific challenges continue to bog down our operations. In order for us to expand our programs, we need financial and material support. We still need more of each of the following items to fully cover phase one of our program
Ox plough @ $140, Ox @ $280, piglet @ $14, goat @ $34, chicken @ $6, Soy @kilogram $1.50, football @17, netball @ $17, child sponsorship @year $100, cabbage @kilogram @ 6, onion @ kilogram $8, keyboard @ $1,150, generator @$1400, projector@ $850, TV screen @ $500, Video deck @ $170, DVD player @ @ $230.
You can support us by making financial contribution, prayer and telling someone else about what we are doing.
For any feedback contact David Ofumbi at 6266025010

Leadia Updates

Dear friends it has been a while since we last updated our blog. Leadia 09 Program updates are coming up soon. Please check our blog for the milestone achievements we have made since last year. We are also happy to inform you that our refurbished website is coming up soon-leadia.org. Thank you for your continued interest in and support for Leadia.

David's recent visit to Uganda-- updates coming soon.

Training for transformation

Seminars and conference updates:

LEADIA continues to pursue its vision of “nurturing spiritual leaders” We have therefore embarked on aggressive training of Pastors and church leaders. In July we are going to hold a number of Leadership and Biblical training seminars. Below is a schedule of some of our activities during the months of June and July;

• June 25 – 29 Kampala: Kampala Center for Biblical Leadership (KCBL) 4^th Session – Essentials of the Christian Faith” with Pastor Emma Akatukunda
• July 10^th - 12^th Tororo: Leadership Conference for Pastors in Eastern Uganda and Western Kenya at Link Way Business College.
• July 14^th Gulu: Symposium on “The War in Northern Uganda and a Christian Response” at Acholi Inn. Gulu District Chairman, Norbert Mao expected to attend.
• July 15^th – 17^th Tororo: Conference on “The Church in Response to HIV/AIDS” at Link Way Business College
• July 18^th Kampala: Symposium on “The African Church in the face of the Global Challenges Today” at Hotel Equatoria. A number of Church, government and other opinion leaders expected to attend.
• July 21^st Kigali, Rwanda: Symposium on the “Role of the church in reconciliation”. Mr. Antoine Rutayisire of Africa Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) expected to attend.
• July 23^rd – 28^th Kampala: Pastors and Church Leaders conference (Basic Bible and Theological Courses for Pastors) at Kyambogo University. 100 pastors are expected to attend.

Sioport Pastors' Library Launched

In our bid to train more pastoral leaders in Africa, we have continued with our one-week-modular conferences. Sioport is one of the five Pastoral Training Centers (PTCs) that LEADIA conducts. On February 12^th to 17^th 2007, we held our fourth training session in Sioport, Kenya. We covered topics on: Preaching and Communication, Church ministry and Administration, and Old Testament Survey. We also held workshops on youth and family ministries.

In addition to this kind of training, we launched a Pastors Lending Library with over ten books, and we intend to keep building on this.

Kampala Library

Our first library was launched in Kampala at the end of 2006 and now has about one hundred books (commentaries, dictionaries, and other Bible study and theology guidebooks). We are grateful to our friends who have contributed to this.

One of the greatest challenges in the African Christian ministry is having access to ministry and study resources. We call on all those who have a heart to help pastors in Africa, to consider this as a critical need indeed. You could forward this note to churches, colleges, or seminaries, who update their libraries often, so that they may send those books and resources (CDs, Tapes, DVDs, etc) they no longer use. We will of course appreciate brand new stuff as well!

Some comments from the pastors who attended the conference:

“If we had been taught these things before, our ministries would have been different”

"It is good that we are being taught how to prepare Biblical sermons; before we used to preach [attacking] people.” Pr. Gilbert Bwiire – Harvest Fellowship Church.

“We are changed; we will never be the same again” Pr. Alphonse Makolomba – Assemblies of Christ Church.

“We were not allowed [by our denominations] to go to theological colleges. Thank you for coming to us.’ One of the youth pastors after the conference.

"This is a great milestone in our ministry.” Brother Aurah, commenting after the launch of the resource library.

Thank you to all who have identified with our cause of multiplying spiritual leaders in Africa.

If you would like to know more about LEADIA, about our programs please contact us on the address below:

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE AFRICA (LEADIA)

Attn: Emmanuel Akatukunda,

P. O. Box 28848, Kampala, Uganda.

Phone: 256-712-355049, 256-712-954205

E-mail: eakatukunda@yahoo.com